Feedback session for the report on community-led health advocacy. Frustration from the delivery team about the timing of the evaluation (very early!) and things that it might have missed. Largely people were happy with the emerging insights - especially after we discussed how some tricky parts were framed (and why they were even included - balancing what different organisations want to learn from the process so far). We need to restructure some sections but the end is in sight.
Reflection session for the work on apprenticeships - what worked and didn’t about the project. Nice to discuss how well the team worked and that the things that were hard largely came from outside.
Struggling with a big analysis - I thought I had the structure covered but re-read the draft and it is not balanced at all. Going back, reading all the interviews and starting again.
Things I have been reading/ listening to
Nothing - too spaced out from all the reports…
17 March 2023
Things I have been working on
Writing a report about place-based community-led health advocacy. It’s a long one! But hopefully some useful insights and myself and the other new team member have managed to really understand the project and what was delivered.
Admin, project management. Closing some things, opening others.
Owen Jones and James Meadway looking at the budget
An article from the Institute for Government on declining standards of legislative scrutiny, using the Illegal Immigration Bill as an example.
9 March 2023
Things I have been working on
Writing a report on supervision for educational leaders. First comments are back so now just final edits to focus on - particularly in terms of language and picking out distinctions between the experiences of different types of leaders. Hard in a small cohort. Some deep insights into the differences between supervision and coaching and the role they both can plan in a wider support ecosystem.
Analysis sessions with peers where we chat through insights from interviews. Recording the calls so they form the basis of short reports. Trying to make better use of collective time so solo writing is less painful.
Remotely joining other people’s reflection sessions. Enjoying hearing them talk about what they have learnt, where the challenges still remain.
Adapting plans for a theory of change to respond to what is coming out of research. Trying to find a balance between what the end users need and what is practical. Really hard when the problems are deeply systemic.
Getting my teeth into the tail end of a project that someone has asked for help with as some of the team are leaving. All the research is done, they just need support to write the final report. It’s about place-based community-led health advocacy. Is fascinating and it’s a lovely team to engage with.
Lots of time visiting family. Working from other people’s spare rooms, trains, couches. Hard to juggle but nice to change scenery.
Things I have been reading/ listening to
Rest is Resistance, by Tricia Hersey (The Nap Ministry). A kind of sermon on the role of rest and collective care in imagining and acting on a future with more justice.
The disproportionate impact on women and girls of disasters (in terms of the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria).
This American Life podcast on leaving things. The section on the dilemmas OBG-YN doctors face in some states in terms of providing a duty of care (mandated by medical legislation) within the realms of what is now legal under anti-abortion legislation.
3 February 2023
Things I have been working on
Editing transcripts of interviews to check for sense before starting analysis. It takes so much longer than expected.
Project catch ups for the research/ action project with d/Deaf people around inequalities and the project with community groups in Gloucestershire.
Getting slower as the week goes on as I worked all of Sunday editing the guidance for the strategy and can really feel the impact of not having a full weekend.
Things I have been reading/ listening to
The updated Places, spaces and social connection review from What Works Centre for Wellbeing. Great to see that there is more evidence for the benefits of community hubs and that the evidence base in general continues to grow.
How being within 15 minutes of green/ blue space isn’t enough (new UK government initiative as part of their environmental improvement plan). The quality of that space matters, and whether you feel you belong. It’s more than just the existence of spaces in our communities- it’s about centring justice and equity. And, ultimately, it’s about resources.
27 January 2023
Things I have been working on
Rest. I took nearly three weeks holiday for Christmas and New Year and closed my laptop, ignored my emails and focused on rest. It was fantastic and I started 2023 feeling much more focused and ready to start work. I also started slowly and found that I was doing things much more efficiently.
Writing, editing, sense-checking, ignoring, coming back to and finalising all the insights from roundtables in November into guidance for a strategy. For the last push I booked into a local Shut Up and Write group where you meet others who write (for work, play etc) and use the shared space to give yourself a bit of focus and accountability. I not only got half of my edits done, I also learned about people’s plans for short stories, science communication in the field of psychedelics and neurons and useful programs for writer (Scrivener).
Reviewing transcripts from the many interviews I did in November and December. Understanding the days when I was tired from how convoluted my words were. Feeling thankful that many people I was speaking with were also exhausted and pushing through until the end. There was still a lot of useful content but a reminder of how different the quality of my work is when I don’t have energy.
Finalising the report on apprenticeships, working with other people’s style guide- much easier after the holidays.
Presenting some findings on research around inequalities that d/Deaf people face. I made an error when someone skipped to the next slide before I was ready - a table with text - and in my confusion said “don’t worry about reading it”. Not useful for those who in the audience are taking in all the information from the words on the screen or the interpreter. I have been learning a lot about communication and clarity in this project - mainly by getting things wrong!
The latest New Economics Foundation Zine is on narratives. In the intro they set out how fear dominates and the need for us to tap into hope as a motivator and the need to tell better stories “because even with the best ideas or the most ingenious solutions, you still need to tell their story and get people on board.” There’s also some great examples of specific narratives (economics, tax, the Irish Together for Yes campaign, climate and migration).
